Luke 16:9

9. I say unto you As this steward in his worldly dealing made earthly friends which would receive him into their earthly houses, so do you, from your worldly management, so contrive to make heavenly friends above, who will receive you

to everlasting habitations. Make to yourselves friends Of God, of Christ, of all the holy ones above. Render yourselves fit to be a congenial associate with glorified saints and angels. Of Rather , from or by means of. The mammon The world’s god. See note on Matthew 6:24.

Mammon of unrighteousness That is of unrighteous mammon The mammon of unrighteousness is unrighteous mammon, just as a man of wealth is a wealthy man, or a woman of great beauty is a beautiful woman. Mammon is called unrighteous, not because trade is in itself unlawful, nor because, as Stier would tell us, property is founded in sin; but because the spirit which pervades trade, if not purified by Christianity, and as it exists in heathen countries, and as a heathenish element in Christian countries, is unrighteous. When ye fail In the Greek, when you depart or leave off: that is, from life, as the steward did from his office. They The friends above, whom you have made, as directed in the former part of the verse.

Everlasting habitations In contrast with the houses of the tenants mentioned in Luke 16:4.

Jesus does here advise us to imitate a wicked man, but not in his wickedness. Good men may be often instructed by the example of the wicked. If a reveller can, as he often does, spend one night a week in revelry, surely the Christian may be incited to have one watch-night in the year. We may take the devil as a model of unceasing activity; we in a good, as he in a bad cause. It is a maxim in heraldry, that of the animal placed as emblem on the coat of arms, the good qualities alone must be considered, and not the bad. So, if on the national banner an eagle, a lion, a rattlesnake, be placed, we leave out of account the beastly or reptile baseness, and take in only the excellences in these beings. Our Lord commends to his apostles the wisdom of the serpent, but not his venom; the harmlessness of the dove, but not his simplicity. In the same way he instructs from the Unjust Judge and the Reluctant Neighbour. See note on Luke 18:2-8, and on Luke 11:5-8.